When I was closing my design agency four years ago with the idea of building a body of artistic and commercial work around language, a very clever strategist and trend-forecaster friend warned me that the world was favouring images more and more. People were reading less they said. I was on a fool's quest.
They might be right, but since then I have managed to work with some brilliant brands who like writing. The British Library is the obvious example of course, but there are many many others. And I've realised what typifies these companies is that they've all had Brand Directors who love ... reading. The idea that marketeers directing the growth of businesses are only interested in the retinal is far from my experience. I want to highlight this approach more.
'The Brand Director Who Loves Language' will be a regular series of Substacks published between my other ones. An interview about literary and language tastes. A reminder that those people shaping our shared cultural landscape aren't only obsessed by image and trend, but also by the deep tremors writing can prompt.
Let me introduce you to Charlie.
Who are you and what brands have you helped shape?
I’m Charlie, Head of Brand at Cubitts, the spectacles maker.
Before that, I worked with lots of incredible people managing creative campaigns for brands including Peroni, Ribena, KitKat and Ann Summers. I also did a stint as Marketing Lead for a Swedish food waste start-up, Karma.
Which of these Sherlock Holmes stories best sums up your career to date?
The title that spoke to me first was ‘A Case of Identity’. Growing into a career really is about growing into your own identity. What is important to you as a person, and how that manifests in the work you end up creating. My approach to brand building ten years down the line has evolved hugely, and I feel that my own identity and my work have never been more closely connected. I also love that brands themselves have these beautiful and curious identities too. Nurturing them, guarding them and growing them is a real privilege.
All that said, ‘The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez’ feels pretty close to my heart now too, for obvious reasons.
Tell us a book that you think everyone should read. I will then buy a copy and send it to one random commenter on this post.
This is hard to answer. Too many choices. The book I have recently recommended most often to other people is ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’. I won’t say much, but - imagine living out your life, only to be reborn on the same date, same place, in the same body with all your memories intact.....forever.
So, what is it about writing?
They say ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. But I think if you gave a thousand people those thousand words - each one would draw a very different picture from it. That’s the beauty of good writing. It is deeply personal. It can take you to different places and make you feel things, both good and bad. I love that writing trusts you to bring your own imagination and creativity to the table each time.
Taglines – yes or no?
The longer I’ve been in the world of brands, the more I wonder whether taglines are lazy. A way for brands to create a false sense of deep-rooted, creative consistency rather than doing the hard work of embedding the brand into every part of the company. On the other hand, it still makes me chuckle to know that J.C.Penny ran with the tagline ‘If it fits, you feel it’ for many years. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to miss out on that.
What genre of book will you never tire of?
I will fight anyone who says there’s a better genre of books than the classic spy thriller. They’d be deeply misguided. Everything from the John Le Carré novels, to the more recent Mick Heron’s Slow Horses series. There is something endlessly romantic about spies, and the best spy writers bring a world of intrigue to readers that feels so far from everyday reality.
Psychonaut Terence McKenna says ‘the world is made of words’ and chemical adventurer William Burroughs says ‘language is a virus from outer space’. Please choose one of the following questions to answer:
What is it about drugs that makes people think intensely about language?
Would society be a better place if our leaders got drunk on poetry more?
If we accept that language *is* infectious, should political slogans be banned?
I disagree that all language is infectious. Only really good language.
To me, politics and political slogans are persuasion. Pure and simple. Do I believe in this person, and what they are selling me? Most of the time I don’t. Probably because the language is so terrible. Until such a time as all political slogans use excellent language, let’s save the banning for terrible politicians.
Who would make the better CEO? Historian, poet or thriller writer?
I guess the question really is who would have the stomach for it.
A good friend recently leant me the book ‘The Lessons of History’ (by Will and Ariel Durant). Two sentences that stuck with me said ‘There is no certainty that the future will repeat the past. Every year is an adventure’. That knocks the historian out straight away I think. No use in looking only at the past, if you’re building the future. The poet would likely be too romantic. Not quite right either.
Indulging in the excitement of not knowing what comes next is the foundation of any good thriller novel. It’s a trait that comes from the author, I reckon. An ability to persuade people to step into the unknown, guiding them down a path for which only he or she knows the ending. My vote for CEO goes to them.
Which is the worst Mills & Boon title in this list?
‘Worst’ is a loose concept here because the more terrible the title, the better I feel about it. ‘Cupboard Love’ has to be a contender. Is there love in the cupboard, love for the cupboard or love between two cupboards? Either way, there’s something inherently magnificent about romanticising the most boring of home furniture. I think that has to be my winner. Although the shock value of calling a romance novel ‘One Of The Family’ definitely speaks to me.
How does being a lover of reading and language influence the commercial work you do?
Most brands don’t respect language. It’s a means to an end. A way to sell. There’s no fun in that.
The best language, used commercially, creates a distinctive, memorable world for the readers. It excites them and makes them think. To me, that’s one of the most important elements of a brand. Not just do’s and don’ts in a brand book, but something that feels fluid and alive and constantly evolving.
Choose a poem to share with everyone.
Probably painfully cliché, but I’d like to share ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley. Words of grit and resilience for any beleaguered Brand people, perhaps.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
I invent worlds, commercial campaigns and artistic moments with language at their heart. I’ve spent my life thinking about what writing can do. If you favour my ideas and style then please consider sharing my website with the ambitious brand owners and sensitive artistic patrons in your life. I’m an independent practitioner and I do what I do through building partnerships. Here is a list of some people I’ve worked with so far.
Giving a thousand people and thousand words each and receiving a thousand different outcomes really spoke to me.
I love it when people see beyond the spy novel as simply about spying and realise it's all about betrayal and love and loss and also spying.